I was rolling on Friday. Got there a little late, due to work as usual. But I was pretty happy about polishing off a bunch of stuff in time to make the afternoon class.Casey was showing us a guard pass, the one where you bait the guy into attacking with the triangle choke, then counter by stacking him, posturing and passing.
A couple of key details: make sure you don't lean over and are straight up with you go for the stack. Also make sure to put all of your weight on the leg to keep him pinned ...
After that we went straight into a guard pass/guard sweep gauntlet drill. I rolled with Stephen first and, after rolling for what seemed like about five minutes, he managed to get to his feet. Back in the line I went.
Next up was John. We went at it for a little while, then I managed to get to half guard. For some reason, I didn't go for my usual half guard pass. I had the underhook and figured that I might as well go for the other pass, instead.
That turned out to be a mistake. Just as I was scooting past John's guard, I felt him whizzer my right arm under hook hard and heard a ripping noise. My right arm went limp, and I sort of just rolled over as John reversed me.
I knew I was in trouble immediately. I sort of staggered off to the side and managed to get my gi jacket off. My right pec, shoulder and bicep were killing me. After a little while John brought over some ice and I packed that on right on the skin to take away the discomfort.
Long and short of it: I didn't bother going to the doctor, and tonight on Sunday it is feeling a lot better than it did on Friday. I was able to drive home and get some more writing in to finish the work week. But it was a lousy way to start a weekend I had really been looking forward to--especially with the continued instability at my new job.
I'm definitely taking a week off training to see how quickly my shoulder heals. There's a nasty looking bruise on my right bicep, up high. But there's no more pain when I touch it, so I'm assuming that a bad bruise is all it is. Most of the pain now is centered around where my deltoid and pec connect, as well as in my arm pit. Worst case scenario is a four-to-six week type of delay, but that would still allow me four-to-six weeks to prepare for the July event.
Like I said, though, I'm feeling better at a decent rate. There's one week left in this six-week period before the tournament on May 3rd. Then there's a four week period followed by a six-week period before the next gi tournament in July. I'm hoping to use the next week to recover, and then to spend the month of May (the next four weeks) in rehab, lifting weights, getting leander and more flexible, and losing some weight. If all goes well, come the next six-week, tournament-prep period, I'll be right as rain and ready to roll.
